A COVERSATION WITH LESLIE WEST Mountain Man
by Michael Buffalo Smith
Leslie West was one
of my earliest rock and roll heroes. This huge man who played guitar like a wild man. His band, Mountain was best known for the Top 40 hit “Mississippi Queen,” but there was so much more to them. West has a brand new
album out called Sound Check, and it rocks to beat the band. I spoke with Leslie by phone, discussing Mountain, his battles with health, and the new album.
Leslie: It’s great to talk to you Michael. Thanks for doing this. Where are you located?
Buffalo: I’m in Spartanburg, SC Spartanburg?
Yeah, Upstate. I tell you it’s quite an honor to talk to you because back in high school I got into Mountain and all that when I was in, like about 10th grade, right at the peak of Mountain’s popularity. You’ve always been one of my all-time favorite guitar players. Well that’s very
nice.Thank you.
(Justin Borucki Photo)
So Leslie, I’d like to go back a few years before we talk about the new album and ask a few questions about the “good ol’ days.” If you would, please give our read- ers kind of a “Reader’s Digest” version of the origin of the band, Moun- tain. Well, quickly, I had a group called the Vagrants originally. It was my brother and three other guys and for some reason we just couldn’t make a good record. And Felix Pap-
palardi, who became the producer and my partner
in Mountain, and our bass player, he went into the studio to try to produce us. We didn’t have enough songs for some reason, it just didn’t work out and he was going to England to produce Cream in two weeks so we had two weeks and we didn’t have enough time with just two weeks. So I said to him, you know, the band is probably going to have to break up. And he said, “Well, that might not be the worst thing in the world. Call me if you get something together.” So lo and behold I called him and he came back. I was going to call the album Mountain. Leslie West was the name of the group. but the album was called
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